


I'll Follow You Into The Dark

by why_do_i_write



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Action, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Alternate Universe - Gangsters, Alternate Universe - Mob, Alternate Universe - No Powers, BAMFs, Canonical Character Death, Character Death, Child Death, Cussing, Drugs, F/M, M/M, Organized Crime, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Slow Build, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-07
Updated: 2016-06-03
Packaged: 2018-04-25 06:27:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 15,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4950127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/why_do_i_write/pseuds/why_do_i_write
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In an alternate universe, similar to our own, but with a practically nonexistent government, its up to the gangs, such as the Heroes of Olympus and Hunters of Artemis, to protect those who are poorer and struggling to make ends meet. What do they protect them against? Other gangs and criminals, but their biggest rivals, the Titans of Chaos.<br/>When he was younger, Nico di Angelo's life turns into the worst one he can imagine, and he is dragged into this gang. Years later, Nico's life is once again turned upside down, but for the better. Next thing he knows, he's fighting against his old side as he and his new friends are struggling to make the world better. Keyword: struggling. </p><p>(Title credit goes to Death Cab for Cutie)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! So, this fic is going to be centered around Solangelo, but I am planning on having other ships involved. As for the setting itself, you can safely assume there will be flaws, but I'll try to avoid them. The universe is like ours, as in they're the same species, same planet, same architecture, yet a bit behind technology, and the government is just about the worst thing. Most countries have been taken over by gangs and such. I will definatley be taking some artistic liberties. I do not own any of the characters, though. Credit to Rick Riordan. Finally (I think), is the rating. Most of that is mentioned in the tags, but again, violence and mentions of abuse of substances and people.  
> Anyways, I hope you like! Comments, kudos, etc. are all appreciated and make my day. Thanks!  
> ***Here's my tumblr, too: http://deathby-fandom.tumblr.com/

** Prologue  **

While you couldn’t say the world had been reduced to flames, chaos, and everyone died on street corners, you couldn’t say it was Heaven, or even that it was safe, really. In fact, it was far from that.

The structure of this society was much different. You had different types of people, and by type, they don’t mean your jocks, your, geeks, the popular ones, etc. No, it was much grander, much worse than that.

For example, you had those who had paid something very valuable, whether it be money, their bodies, loved ones, something else, they had sacrificed something to get where they were. That was in some rich community, where the crime rate was low (but still there), large houses lined up next to one another, and people couldn’t help but eye them suspiciously, for you could never know what they had done to be able to squeeze their way into that lifestyle. **( _From_ : Reyna Avila Ramirez-Arellano, Annabeth Chase)**

There were other people who had copious amounts of money, but people didn’t wear looks of suspicion towards them. They wore looks of disdain because they had been born into money. They had never known anything but safety, had never been acquainted with the feeling of fearing for your life. These people had been born privileged, lived with a company keeping them afloat, and would die with nothing but money and the word “safety” to their name. The fact that so many people longed for this is what made them envied and hated. **( _From_ : Piper Mclean, Jason Grace)**

You had of course the poorer or average citizens. These were those who were just trying to get by. They often had families to provide for and would have some sort of job that paid enough. All very average, but never mundane, due to a risk on every street. **( _From_ : Percy Jackson, Hazel Levesque, Will Solace, _past_ Nico di Angelo)**

There were the average, but there were also those who couldn’t afford a single phone, a single roof over their heads or single meal sometimes (or ever). They _maybe_ had a job, but no doubt did it pay enough. They had to live with even more risks, even more of a struggle. They almost never deserved it. **( _From_ : Frank Zhang, Leo Valdez)**

Some of those risks were crimes committed by your everyday criminals. Hearing gunshots and alarms was common and didn’t get much attention. Unless of course those dreadful noises were too close to a friend’s house for your liking. It was common because people had to survive somehow after all, and practically everyone had done _something_ for their own reasons.

There were also gangs that had a name and were well-known. They _hunted_ the criminals, though. Mostly your local or recurring threat, nothing huge, as were the gangs themselves. These people usually thought the world could be a better place and were trying to make it that way. They were the closest things to cops.

On the other hand, you had gangs and people you really should be weary of, for good reason, too. They, most likely, had put counts of murder, human trafficking, and dealing some other very, very terrible things on their record. They ranged from gangs on the street who mindlessly and rambunctiously stole, killed, raped and vandalized, to people who worked their way up the food chain. To people who had connections to other countries and would deal internationally and had hired others to do their dirty work, but that didn’t mean they didn’t have blood on their hands. They had bases with secret offices and threatened people you would think couldn’t be blackmailed into anything, but they found a way. They were also feared, but in a way that people thought they could never be dragged into _that_ because it was so much larger than them. They were right, most of the time.

One of these groups, for example, was The Titans of Chaos. Some people thought they were a myth because they truly were only rumors. No one new if the stories of torture and cold-blooded murder and piles of money were true, but they were existing, the rumors. 

Finally, there were people who were also as high on this pyramid society had built as the aforementioned group, but for different reasons. They were also feared, also considered a myth, also had connections outside of the small, screwed up city they happened to be in. This was just one, specific group, however. No range, no different kinds. Just one corporation that could or could not exist. They were the closest thing to a justice system. They were rumored to protect people. They were myths to some. They were the people after The Titans of Chaos. They were supposed to pull the world out of the current Hell they all occupied.  They were called The Heroes of Olympus.

 

** Nico di Angelo-Prologue **

“Come on, Bianca!” Nico groaned. “Get _up_! I want to go to the store!” He ceased shaking his sister as she stirred.

“Nico, go back to sleep. It’s too early for this.”

“It is not,” he said.

“Why don’t you go bother mom,” she mumbled into her pillow.

“Mom’s outside, Bianca!”

“What is she doing out there?”

“Dad showed up,” Nico said.

“What?” The way his sister said the word made Nico’s blood run cold.

“Dad. He’s outside,” he repeated.

Suddenly jumping out of bed Bianca ran to the front of the house. Slightly started, it took Nico a second before he dashed out after her.

When he got to the living room, the younger one saw that Bianca had opened the front window by the door slightly and was crouched down.

“What are we doing, Bianca?” Nico whispered.

“Shh!” she snapped. “I want to see what dad's doing here.”

“Okay. _Yeesh_ , no need to snap at me _._ ”

 Outside, there were frantic words being said, some in Italian, some English, but it didn’t matter because the children spoke both. The words had a frantic tone to them, but had not escalated to yelling, yet.

“I am not moving, again, Hades,” he heard his mother say.

“Per favore, sweetheart. Per favore,” he recognized as his dad. His voice was desperate and the 13-year-old would not have been surprised if he was on knees.

“No. Bianca and Nico have already had to completely change their lives around, and I will not make them do it again.”

“I’m begging you, Maria, please.”

“And I’m saying no. We will stay here, where it is safe, and _you_ will leave _us_. My kids do not deserve to live a life as close to death as this, and if not having you here will make them safer, then so be it.”

“What if they come after you Maria, what if they come after-“

“Bianca di Angelo! What do you think you are doing?!” Nico turned to his sister. She had tried to peek out the window, but had gotten caught in the process.

“Nico di Angelo, you come out, too… Don’t try hiding, I know you’re there.” Slowly the kids made their way to the front door with heads bowed.

“I thought I had raised you better than that. You know poking your nose in other people’s business is rude. Now go back inside and change. Maybe we can go to Mrs. Bell after your father and I are done here.”

“Momma? Who’s coming after us?” Bianca asked. Nico saw the color in his mom’s face drain considerably, but knew better than to say anything.

“Nobody, love. Go back inside,” Hades said.

“Is it those people after dad’s group?” Bianca asked. Nico was clueless as to what she was talking about, but apparently his parents weren’t.

 “Nobody’s after dad,” his mother at the same time his dad replied with “How much have you been eavesdropping?”

Bianca chose to answer Hades. “Enough.”

That was met with silence. Maria broke it first.

“Go change kids. I’ll be back inside by the time you’re finished.” Hating the tension, Nico jumped back inside to obey his mother.

Later that night, as the three of them had been seated around a table, eating the food Hades had bought them, there was a knock on the door.

“Excuse me,” Maria said with a smile, interrupting some joke Nico was telling them. He continued to tell it to Bianca, who laughed a boisterous laugh that Nico noticed came from his mother.

They were stopped short in their happiness when they heard multiple shouts from the front. Bianca immediately shot up.

“Nico,” he looked over at her with fear in his eyes. “Come here and be quiet,” she whispered.

He followed as he led him to their bedroom. When they got there, she gestured for him to climb onto the top shelf in their closet. He did and Bianca proceeded to pile their stuff on top of him. He made a small area to look out from so he could see the rest of the room.

“Bianca, what’s going on?” he said, confused. More shouts and the sound of things being thrown were coming from the front.

“Nothing. It’s okay,” she tried reassuring him, but her own eyes were wet, as were Nico’s, and her voice quavered. “Be very quiet. I’ll be right under the bed, okay?”

“Mm-hmm,” he hummed, not trusting his voice. The two children were unfortunate enough to know “nothing” was a lie, and had formed an idea of what was happening.

Bianca smiled sadly, then jumped down from the box she had been standing on. Quietly, she shimmied under the bed, and together they listened to the sounds of a struggle from the front.

“-is he?” they heard a gruff voice say.

“I don’t know,” the quiet, injured voice of Maria di Angelo said.

Through the walls they heard the muffled sound of someone hitting someone else, but no whimper came. Maria was to prideful and stubborn for that.

“If you value your life, you’ll tell where he is.”

“Go fuck yourself.”

There were a few beats of silence, then “Search the house.”

Then there was banging, the sounds of glass hitting floors, tables being turned over and doors slamming. Suddenly the small room the children were hiding in was flooded with light as the door was thrown open.

Nico tried his hardest to hold back a sob. He couldn’t see Bianca from this angle and prayed that the intruders didn’t either.

They began tearing the room apart. Small knickknacks Nico had collected were knocked off of the organized shelf they occupied, clattering to the floor. Sheets from the bed were strewn across the floor, then, as Nico’s heart thudded in his chest, blocking out all noise, one of the men crouched down and looked under the bed.

A scream came from Bianca as she was roughly dragged out from under it. Nico felt he couldn’t breathe, but Maria screamed an assortment of profanities and objections.

Then Nico’s fort of boxes and pillows was ripped down and he, too, was dragged to the front of the room by a women with an iron like grip and steel eyes. 

“Let them go,” his mom said through gritted teeth. She was on her knees and her arms were held behind her back by another man.

Ignoring her, a man stepped forward. He wore a torn jeans, combat boots that were splattered with something Nico didn’t want to think about, a grey shirt, and over it a beige jacket. Everyone else, four other males and three females, were wearing similar jackets.

“What’s your name, sweetheart?” he looked at Bianca, and a fired burned inside Nico at the voice and eyes the man used to look her up and down.

Clenching her jaw, she said “Bianca.”

“And how old are you?”

“Fifteen.”

“Hmm,” he contemplated. “And you?” he said turning to Nico.

“Thirteen.”

“…and your name?”

“Nico.”

“Well, Bianca and Nico di Angelo, you wouldn’t happen to know where daddy is, would you? We’re just some, ah, _friends_ of his,” the man said with a smirk.

“Bullshit,” Nico spat.

“Nico!” his sister and mother said, simultaneously.

“Please,” his mother continued. “They don’t know anything. They’re just kids, let them go.”

Faster than Nico could follow, the man turned around and slapped his mother.

“Mom!” Bianca screamed.

“Everyone, shut the fuck up!” the man yelled, grabbing out a gun. He made a gesture and the two people holding the di Angelo children pulled out guns of their own. They were placed against the temples of the two kids.

“ _Now_ ,” he said, a crazy gleam in his eye. “Where is Hades? Someone tells me and no one gets hurt. You stay silent, the youngest one goes down.”

“ _Please_ ,” Maria said, tears falling from her eyes, as was the case with the whole family. “ _Please_ don’t. Just take me. Take me and I’ll help you find him, plea-“

A gunshot rang through the air, and Nico felt his whole world tumble down around him.

No, no, no, no, _no._

Bianca’s sobbing brought him back. He felt tears fall down his own face as he watched his mother, now with a bullet hole in her head, slump forward and fall to the ground.

“Well,” the man said. “Now maybe she’ll shut up.”

Nico heard crying and hiccupping and screams to his left, but was preoccupied with his own tears.

 _Mom? Mom, Jesus fucking Christ, don’t be dead. Please, don’t be dead,_ Nico begged silently, but he knew better. His mom was dead, and Nico and Bianca were next.

“I guess they really don’t know anything,” the killer sighed. “No use for them now, right? Sara, go find a phone. Maybe they have his contact somewhere. I doubt it, but it’s worth a shot. As for these two, what do you think, Matt?”

“Useless, and no way am I gonna deal with punks like these,” the man holding Bianca said.

“Yeah… _maybe_ the girl could be of some uses, eh?” with that same sickening look in his eyes.

“Go for it,” said the Matt. “But get rid of that one. Nobody’s gonna screw him and with that mouth, no way will anyone buy him.”

“True enough, Matt. This is why you’re my favorite. The rest of you, get to work. Take what you can, but find a way to get to Hades.”

The others left the room, then the killer turned to Nico raising the gun. “Later, kid.” Nico closed his eyes because he didn’t want to be looking down the barrel that would end his life. Tensing, he braced himself, then flinched when he heard a scream, then the gunshot.

He should have been relieved when he took his next breath, but was filled with panic because he recognized the scream. It was Bianca’s. Nico snapped his eyes open.

At his feet laid his sister, who must have ripped herself from her captors grip, and flung herself in front of Nico.

“Bianca!” he screamed. He forced himself down to the ground, cradling his barely living sister. He pressed his hands to the whole in her chest and her shirt became more and more soaked with blood. “Bianca, you idiot! Why? No, _no_. Bianca do not die, you hear me? You are not going to die,” the brunette half sobbed, half screamed.

“Dammit,” the man in charge mumbled. He lifted the gun, but was stopped short when the front door was thrown open.

Rushing inside came a hail of bullets, screams, and more bullets. Nico was dazed at that point. He didn’t know what was real, if any of it, but he prayed to all the gods he knew it was all just imaginary, that he was insane because that would be better than what was happening now.

So, not trusting anything, he sat there as him and his sister cradled one another, whispering promises that can’t be kept, and reassurances that were fake.

“Ti amo,” was the last thing Nico said to Bianca before he felt the life drain from her. He screamed and cried, but a set of hands grabbed him.

He noticed they were debating something, but could not care less. At this point is was probably better if he was killed. Instead he was tossed on to a shoulder, and thrown in to the back of a van.

During the ride he was silent, gathering his thoughts. In the back with him was another eleven people, armed, dressed in clothes that were similar to most gangs, but a bit too high quality. They didn’t talk, just looked out the windows alongside Nico.

He decided a few things on that ride. 1) He wasn’t going to be killed, 2) he was completely and utterly alone, 3) nothing mattered to him anymore, and 4) the world was a Hell that Nico now walked in as a victim of its torture.

They pulled up to a concrete building. He was dragged out by the elbow, and led into it.

Inside, there was a hallway with doors branching of to the sides, but he was led to a staircase and marched up to the third floor. By now his face was clean of tears, and he had never felt emptier.

Once he was at his designated place, one of the people with him, a women, knocked on the door. After a muffled “come in” she stepped in, closing the door behind her.

Nico took this moment to look around him. They were in a large area with an unoccupied receptionist’s desk, a few benches and pillars, but nothing much more. There was also four doors, one to the staircase, two on either side of him, and on the far back wall was the one he currently was outside.

The man who held his arm had decent jeans, combat boots, and two layers over his regular shirt. On his belt was a knife, in his waistband was a gun. Accompanying him was another women, dressed similarly.

After a little less than five minutes, he was directed to come in. One ”guard” stayed with him as he went inside the large room.

It was darker, had a large desk in the middle, chairs in front of it, but nothing appeared to be on the desk beside a few papers. The man behind the desk wore an intimidating suit, but his eyes were far more intimidating. In fact, the entire man seemed to radiate a feeling that made you want to cower in fear.

His voice was worse, but Nico tried his hardest not to submit. “Hello, Nico di Angelo. My name is Kronos. Have you ever heard of the Titans of Chaos?”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! New characters! Yay! Will Solace! Yay! Not an incredibly late update!  
> I hope you guys like this chapter! I had a lot of fun writing it, but I'm even more excited for the next one. Admittedly, I think it will take longer to update. Sorry.  
> But this one's not too bad! Thanks for reading, and as always, comments, kudos, bookmarks, etc. are appreciated. Also, I think I'm going to start putting this on my Tumblr...maybe? I don't know, you guys let me know what you think.  
> Hope you like it!

 

**Nico di Angelo- 5 years later**

 

He was walking down the halls in his aviator jacket, black jeans, boots, and a gun on his hip. Next to him was Luke Castellan, someone who was held at the same high regards as Nico, but was a few years older than the current 18 year-old. In Nico's opinion he was someone to be wary of, but mostly because he came from the Heroes of Olympus. Even if he had changed sides, you never know if he would return to work alongside his old friends.

Luke was good-looking, Nico will give him that, but in the dimly lit, concrete halls of the warehouse they occupied, he looked tired and older than he was. Nico didn't blame him. He felt he same dark, tiredness inside of him. He tried to let it show only when there was no one to see it, though.

"She's dangerous?" Nico asked Luke, breaking the silence.

Composing himself back into a determined, intimidating persona, Luke turned to him. "Very. There's more than one, but she's the only one we are worrying about."

"What about the others? What are we doing with them?"  

Smirking, Luke said "I've been told to withhold that information. From you, specifically."

"And why's  _that_?" Nico asked with bite. "You don't out rank me."

"No, but still, direct orders from the boss."

Deciding not to question _that_ , the brunette went back to his previous concerns.

"Who's leading the interrogation?"

"Hyperion, of course. Why else would we been in this disgusting warehouse? He's just got to make an impression, doesn't he?"

"I figured," Nico said.

They walked in silence for a bit, then they reached a flight of stairs. As they were climbing up, Luke stops. "Do you ever smile, Nico?"

"What kind of question is that?" He didn't have time for this.

"I was just thinking. I don't think I've ever seen you smile, is all."

"That's great. Fascinating, really, but can we get back to work. I've got a deal to do for Kronos in barely over an hour, so I want this done. Why the boss sent me here in the first place is a mystery to me."

"What can I say? You're intimidating, Nico."

"Will you just fucking walk already?"

Luke did as he was asked, and didn't question the boy further. They finally reached their designated floor, walking to the doors that held the girl that would hopefully give them information on the Hunters of Artemis, and their leader, who may or may not have connections to the Heroes of Olympus.

As they walked in, Nico saw a girl with short, choppy, black hair that had streaks of blue. Her clothes were also all black, and she was decked in silver jewelry. On her shoulder, which was exposed, due to her tank-top, bore the tattoo of a crescent moon, something everyone in her gang got.

She had been tied to a chair, and in front of her stood Hyperion, one of Kronos' favorite muscle men. They both seemed to be sizing one another up, and the only reason Hyperion was winning was because the girl still looked like she was coming out of her daze. She held her ground, though.

As Nico and Luke stepped in, both took their place behind Hyperion

"Well, look who decided to show up," the girl said, looking towards Luke, who remained silent.

"Shut up," said Hyperion.

"I thought this was an interrogation. Don't you want me talking?" she said in a voice that was supposed to sound innocent.

 "Did I ask you a question?" replied Hyperion.

"Now you have."

"Thalia," Luke snapped.

"Don't you 'Thalia' me, you traitor," the girl spat, making Nico curious to the past the two shared.

"Just cooperate," Luke almost pleaded.

"Fuck off." Luke didn't reply.

"What's the relationship between the Hunters of Artemis and the Heroes of Olympus?" Hyperion asked suddenly.

"None of your business."

A hard slap landed on Thalia's face. She simply closed her eyes and looked back with an even deadlier glare than before.

"Where are the hunters now?"

The lieutenant remained silent, earning her another hit to the face. Once again, she did nothing.

"Fine. We thought you would be reluctant, so we came prepared. Do you know who we got in the raid, Ms. Thalia Grace?"

"Enlighten me," she responded.

"You, of course, and two others. A women by the name of Zoe. I believe this is your fellow lieutenant, no?" Thalia's eyes betrayed her as they went large with what must have been disbelief. "And Rosetta. Don't get me started on that girl. So young. It's a shame really."

"What did you do?" Thalia said through gritted teeth.

"Nothing, yet. Luke?" Hyperion called.

Nico hadn't even noticed he had left in the first place, but then the man walked in through a door on the side, pushing ahead of him another girl decked in silver and black with the tattoo, but her hair was longer and to the side in a braid. She was gagged and had her arms bound behind her back, and Luke was holding a gun to her temple as they entered.

"Now, let me ask again, what is he relationship between the Hunters of Artemis and the Heroes of Olympus?"

"We're close," Thalia said, never taking her eyes off of Zoe. They seemed to be having a silent conversation that Nico tried to keep up with, but couldn't follow.

"And where are either gangs now?" asked Hyperion.

Finally looking at Hyperion after giving a curt, almost nonexistent nod to Zoe, Thalia said "That's classified information."

"Don't make me do this, Thal-" Luke was cut off by legs sweeping out and knocking him down.

Zoe had been able to spin around, remove the cloth gagging her, and reach for the gun in the time it took Nico to grab his own and fire two shots into the air, making everyone freeze. He made quick deductions, then pointed his gun to Thalia, hoping Hyperion truly needed her answers and that Luke and Zoe truly cared for her.

"Luke, get up," Nico ordered. "Thalia, don't you dare think about moving," he spared a quick glace from the corner of his eye to the girl who had leaned forward, with the obvious intent of going after a distracted Hyperion. "And Zoe, on your knees, hands on your head."

They all followed their given directions, if a bit reluctant, then, and only then, did Nico place his weapon back in its holster. "Carry on," he told Hyperion.

The man cleared his throat, then looked to the women tied to the chair. "Don’t pull another stunt like that again. I can assure, we will waste no time in shooting both of you immediately. We are on a tight schedule, Ms. Thalia Grace, and if I were you I would answer these questions fast because we will waste no time in forcing them out of you. Now, where is the current position of the Heroes of Olympus?"

Thalia turned to Zoe, as if looking for an answer, which was surprisingly supplied.

“Death is not the worst fate, Thalia,” Zoe began. Hyperion would have stopped her speech, Nico guessed, if her voice hadn’t been so confident and demanded attention. “There are other things to explore. The stars, for example, are something we know very little about, at least while we walk this Earth alive. One day, though, we will all get to say hello to these stars. If I am to see them sooner rather than latter, so be it. I will just get to see new things from a new perspective. Look that way if you need help, look to the stars.”

With that and tears in her eyes, Thalia turned to Hyperion. “The…location…of both gangs is confidential…and I intend to keep it that way,” she said.

There was a pause, a beat of silence that had people wishing the lieutenant hadn’t said that, including the girl herself, had people surprised and had people disappointed.

Zoe, though looked content, even a bit proud at that answer.

“Very well,” said Hyperion. “Luke, you know the orders. Carry them out.”

Nico looked over to the man, noticing a dreadful expression on his face. Nico then directed his eyes to the ground. A shot rang through the air, then a sob, then the sobs died down to whimpers, then nothing.

“Are you willing to give up the information now, Ms. Thalia Grace?” Hyperion’s expression still cold and unmoved. Nico assumed his own face held a similar look.

“Go to Hell, you bastard.”

“Ah, you see, that is where you are mistaken. I’m already there. Let’s go,” he gestured to Nico and Luke. “And I look forward to seeing you tomorrow, Ms. Thalia Grace.”

 

 

Once they were outside, Nico clarified what he thought was happening. “I assume you have snipers on the roofs?” he asked Hyperion.

“Of course. We also have guards stationed around the area. Trust me, di Angelo, if anyone comes close to trying to rescue the bitch, they’ll be caught.”

“And if no one tries to rescue her…?”

“Then we’ll question her more tomorrow. We have more ways of persuading her, you know?”

“What? The other girl?” Nico asked, suspicious. “I thought you said she was young.”

Hyperion paused by his car, looking at Nico. “Listen Nico, the girl is about 13, but it doesn’t matter-“

“Like Hell it does!” Nico yelled “You aren’t about to shoot a fucking _13 year-old_ in the head, you hear me, you dipshit? No way. Find another 'something else' because you aren’t using that.”

“Don’t start getting soft on me, di Angelo!” Hyperion fired back. He got closer to Nico and lowered his voice. “You can’t let small shit like that get to you-“

“She’s fucking _13_ , Hyperion. That’s a significant detail, being a child, don’t you think?” Nico had lowered his own to be more menacing than his coworker’s, and accompanied it with a glare that had the bigger man taking a couple steps back.

Having a more cautious voice, Hyperion spoke up. “I know you what happened to you as a kid fucked you up, Nico, but we _all_ had a fucked up childhood. So don’t go around letting that get in the way of your job, of what you’re supposed to do because I don’t let it get in the way of mine.”

When Nico showed no sign of lessening his death glare, the older man tried again. “The boss knows it, too. He knows you have a soft spot for the kids. Don’t think we haven’t noticed the threats you send the traders that carry children. It’s all because of that _stupid_ grudge you’re holding against people who’re already dead. Why do you think he sent you on this case in the first place?”

“You shut the fuck up,” Nico hissed. “You don’t know _shit_ about me. Neither does Kronos. You may think you do, but I can assure you, you don’t. Now I’ve got business to deal with, so if you’ll excuse me.”

Nico stared walking off towards his bike, and was surprised when Luke appeared next to him.

“What do you want?” Nico growled.

“Kronos texted me, said he couldn’t reach you…”

“ _And_..?” Nico noticed how Luke was acting, but decided not to comment on the sudden downfall.

“He says he’s sending a new kid, Octavian, to do the deal, so you don’t have to. He says he doesn’t have anything else for us today.”

“Kay, thanks…” Nico stood by his bike, waiting for Luke to leave, but he didn’t. He just stood there.

A couple of cars raced and skidded down the road they were on. In the process, they almost hit Hyperion’s car as he was pulling out. _Shame_ , Nico thought. _The bastard deserves it._

Luke still hadn’t moved. “What the fuck, Castellan? What is it?” Nico was getting impatient.

“Look,” the boy sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “I don’t mean a date, that’s not what I’m asking for.” Nico raised an eyebrow. “Really!” Luke rushed out. “I just…honestly I just want to get really drunk and forget tonight ever happened, just for a little bit. I would rather not do it alone, though. There’s more likely a chance I’ll end up in some random persons bed if I go alone.” Nico continued staring at Luke. “Please,” the aforementioned boy begged. “Just come get hammered with me. Or just sit there and watch _me_ get hammered, I don’t care, just please…”

Nico sighed. “Fine. Only because A) I know what it’s like to want to spill all your problems onto someone, B) because I also know what it feels like to wake up in some random stranger’s bed, and C) I could also use a fucking drink.”

Luke looked relieved. “Thanks, Nico I’ll meet you there, I guess.”

“You’re not gonna ask for a ride,” Nico gestured to his motorcycle.

“Um, wouldn’t we have to be, like, awkwardly close.”

 _Of course,_ Nico thought. _It’s totally fine to vent to him while you’re drunk, to ask him to watch over your sorry ass while you drink your problems away, but ever actually getting close to Nico, physically or emotionally, was too_ fucking _terrifying. Whatever. He didn’t want anyone to get close to him anyways._

“Forget it. See you, where? Dionysus’s place?”

“Yeah. Thanks, again, Nico.”

“Whatever.” Nico hopped on his bike, and flew out of the parking lot.

 

 

“-and so we took her in. Thalia and I. She was _sooooooooooooo_ sick of that house. It was too big and too money and she hated it. Then we were on the streets, beggin’ for food. And houses. And clothes. We got sick of that. Then this guy with a beard finds us. And this guy’s beard was like, _woahhhhhhhh._ It was cool lookin’.” Luke took another shot of whatever he was drinking. Nico had stopped keeping track of what he was ordering and how much.

Bringing his glass to his own lips, Nico took a sip from his whiskey. He wasn’t drunk and wasn’t planning on becoming so, so he nursed his drink instead. Luke, on the other hand, was downing shot after shot of whatever he could. Nico’s only concerned was how Luke was going to pay because Nico sure as Hell wasn’t.

“Sir, sir!” Luke yelled. “Another one!” The bartender nodded, then went on fixing Luke’s drink. “Ayways,” he turned back to Nico. “What was I talking about?”

“You were telling me the story about you, Thalia, and a girl named Annabeth,” Nico reminded him.

“ _Riiiiiight_ ,” Luke said. He suddenly gasped, eyes popping out of their sockets. “We thought Annabeth’s mom had been a part of the Heroes of Olympus because she always knew stuff Annabeth said and she probably got, um, uh, _information_ , for them because how else would they be rich. Makes sense, right?”

“Mm-hmm,” Nico hummed into his glass.

The night went on like that. Luke telling Nico the story of how all of them had been recruited into the Heroes of Olympus, but then Thalia left when she met the Hunters of Artemis doing business with them once. Then how Kronos had showed Luke the truth, about how everyone was only doing things for their own good, so he left to join them, but Annabeth stayed.

By the time the stories were over, Luke had passed out, so Nico had to drive him to one of the headquarters and into the room Kronos had given them. Almost everyone had a room in the building the Titans of Chaos called theirs. For multiple reasons, Kronos had once told Nico. For one, most of the kids, like Nico, didn’t have parents or a family to go to (with the exceptions of some who were in the gang _because_ their parents were. Another reason was because it was easier to keep an eye on all of his employees that way.

So after he dropped Luke of in his own room, Nico retired to his own down the hall. He could get his bike back later, he thought. It would most likely be stolen, though. Oh, well.

He sighed into the darkness, waiting for sleep that won’t arrive for a while, and when it did, it would be filled with nightmares that he wished were just that: nightmares. Not his past. Not of when he was a child, not from him being here, a part of the Titans of Chaos, none of it.

Just some figment of his imagination.

 

 

“I swear to God, if you don’t tell me where they are…” Hyperion threatened Thalia. He had her hair in his hand and he was pulling it back so she was looking up at him. Blood was dripping from her nose, some was dried onto the side of her face, as well.

This had been Nico’s agreement. He would assist in getting information out of the lieutenant as long as they postponed bringing out the little girl for as long as possible. Nico was secretly starting to worry that the considered time of “as long as possible” was approaching.

“Thalia,” Luke said, standing next to her. “They’re going to bring out Rosetta. I don’t want to go through that again, please.”

“You don’t _have_ to go through it again, Luke! Listen to yourself! Just let us go!”

“You know we can’t do that,” sounding defeated, Luke was trying to beg Thalia to understand. He looked super exhausted and sick, no doubt due to a terrible hangover.

“Thalia,” Nico spoke up. He took a step forward, from out of the shadows. “It doesn’t have to be something as important as the location of the gangs or squads or anyone undercover. Just give us something, _anything_ , to go off of.”

Mockingly, she replied with “You know I can’t do that.”

“Fine,” Hyperion grunted. He roughly let go of Thalia’s hair. “I’m getting the kid.” The last part was directed more toward Nico than anyone else.

“ _Hyperion_ ,” Nico replied, with a warning in his voice.

“You can’t tell me what to do, di Angelo.”

“Technically…” Nico started.

“Shut the fuck up. I’m getting the kid.”

Nico watched Hyperion march toward the side door in the room, feeling like he could do nothing, Nico closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. He then turned to the girl and Luke.

Luke was kneeling in front of Thalia, begging her to give up information.

“Luke,” Nico cut in. “Take a break.”

“What? No, not now. I can’t-“

“Luke,” this time through grit teeth. “Step outside. _Now._ ”

Sadly, the man looked down, then walked out of the room.

“I’m not going to let her die,” Nico said simply. Thalia eyed him suspiciously. “I don’t want that little girl dead, and I know you don’t want her to be either.”

“But you’d have Zoe killed?” she replied with venom.

“That’s different. In order for her to survive, you’re going to have to make either one of two sacrifices; you give up information or you die. Which one because I can work with both.”

Thalia pondered her choices rather quickly, then told Nico she won’t be giving up any information. He nodded then told Thalia it had been good knowing her and that she was brave and a good person. They stood in silence for a short while, but it was interrupted by the voice of the girl.

“How is that different?”

Reluctantly, Nico said “She’s a child. She has a life ahead of her she can still _try_ to enjoy. And she should get the chance. Not many do.”

After a couple more minutes, Hyperion walked into the room with a small girl in the same position Zoe had been in yesterday. Nico took the girl, Rosetta, by the shoulders.

“Hey Rose,” Thalia said weakly. “I would ask how you’re doin, but…”

A small laugh came from the girl, but tears where running down her cheeks. She smiled, though, and Nico knew this girl was the kind of person who could be happy and could make the others around her happy. He couldn’t let her die.

“Thalia, who is undercover and where?” Hyperion asked, cold as ever.

“Where’s the ‘Miss’, Hyperion?” Thalia asked. Of course that only caused her to be hit in the stomach.

“ _Where. Are. They, bitch?”_

“Asshole,” Thalia chocked out. Another hit, this time to the face.

“I’m not telling you, and I never will.”

“Really?” Hyperion whipped out his gun and pointed it to the blindfolded girl Nico held.

 _Now or never_ , Nico thought.

“Hyperion, you know she’s right. She’s not telling us. At least this one might have over heard something. Plus, she can still come and join us still, we can influence her easier.” He gruffly threw the girl to his coworker, who caught her. Then Nico pulled out his gun, walked up to Thalia and held it to her temple.

“Wait, di Angelo. We don’t know that for sure.”

“Yes we do. Look at her. You really think she’ll say something?” Thalia looked up at Nico with determined eyes. She looked ready to die.

“Well…we could at least sell her to one of the traders Kronos is providing for…”

“You know Kronos won’t sell someone as valuable as her, Hyperion. He’ll just order her to be taken out back and shot.”

He heard the man behind him sigh. “You’re right.”

 _This dumbass_ , Nico thought.

Looking back at Thalia, Nico cocked his gun.

Of course Luke came back into the room, and upon seeing Thalia with a gun to her head ran up. “Wait! You can’t-“

And of course an explosion sent everyone in the room flying to the other side.

Nico felt pain explode through his body. All throughout him, Nico felt pain. In his chest, in his limbs, his head, everywhere. The ringing through his ears was also adding to his discomfort. Opening his eyes, everything was slightly blurry, but he could see some people running into the building, armed. He tried to count them, but couldn’t focus.

Then he tried sitting up, and everything went a million times worse. He guessed he must have broken some ribs after being slammed into the wall. He must have a concussion, too, because colors were dancing across his vision.

Yeah, nope, not getting up.

A figure with blond hair came into view above him. He couldn’t possibly comprehend the words, but the man was pointing and shouting.

Trying harder, Nico understood something about “put _her_ on the bed” and “ _he_ can just be thrown into the first van” and a “Jesus Christ, Katie, you know how to splint a leg”.

Then the blond man was leaning down in front of Nico. Nico went for his gun (habit), but it wasn’t there.

“Hey, can you hear me?” the man asked.

“Fuck off,” Nico tried, and think he successfully said.

The blond laughed then. “I’ll take that as a yes. Come on, try getting up.”

Nico shook his head.

“Alright, let me help you.” Then man went to try to wrap an arm around Nico, but he quickly moved to sit up and lean against the wall behind him.

“Don’t touch me,” he hissed, and gave him a glare to stress his point.

Nico expected this person to back away, to leave Nico, but he kept looking at him. It wasn’t just looking at him, no, this guy was looking at Nico like he was stupid.

Looking up to the sky with an exasperated sigh, the man breathed out “Fuck, I don’t have time for this shit.” Then he looked back at Nico. “Look, Death Boy-“

“Don’t call me that. That doesn’t even make sense.”

“It makes plenty sense. Now listen, I’m trying to help you, and you don’t really get to say if you want it or not. _So,_ stand the fuck up.”

Nico was confused. He didn’t know if he wanted to spit in this guy’s face for having the audacity to say those things to Nico or comply because _holy crap this guy has the audacity to say those things to Nico_.

No one ever, not since ~~Mama and Bianca~~ he was a child. No one had ever _not_ been afraid of Nico. Again, maybe when he was a child, but he scared everyone off now. No one had ever gone to deliberately touch Nico because Nico had perfected the art of giving off a “touch-me-I-dare-you-see-how-long-it-takes-for-me-to-chop-your-fingers-off” look.

Not this guy, apparently. No, according to him he “didn’t have time for this shit”.

So Nico decided to stand up. He did it on his own at first, using the wall. As he stood up so did the man in front of him. As soon as Nico took a step off the wall, though, he stumbled and the man in front of him caught him.

“I said not to touch me,” Nico said, gritting his teeth.

“Uh-Hu. Come on, let’s go.” He began to drag Nico to the door.

The brunette tried to walk on his own, but if he was being honest it was a lot easier to have the stranger drag/carry him. As he was being taken down the halls and stairs, Nico started to make observations.

One was the person “helping” him. He was almost a whole head taller than Nico, but still looked around Nico’s age. As Nico noticed before, blond. He had _very_ blue eyes and a dust of freckles across his face. He wore jeans, combat boots, and a flannel over a t-shirt. He also had a gun strapped to his leg, a lot like Nico, but accompanying that was a bag hanging above it. It must have held medical supplies because some bandages were hanging out.

Another thing was all the people. They were running up and down the stairs. There was a blond girl bickering with a raven haired boy as they dashed up the stairs. Another was a Chinese boy carrying Luke down the stairs.

Suddenly there was a couple gunshots outside. The boy carrying him cursed under his breathe.

“Will!” there was a shout from upstairs. Both Nico and Will (must have been his name) looked up. The same blond girl Nico saw earlier was looking down at them. “We need to get all these people into the van before everyone else recovers! And by the sounds of it, they already are!”

“Just get everyone in the van- the second -and I can start treating them! Except for the one, but I already told Jason to put him with you guys!” Will shouted back.

“Got it!” The girl dashed back into wherever she came from.

“You used explosives,” Nico realized out loud.

Will glanced over at him and continued down the stairs. “Yeah. Your point?”

“Nobody uses explosives that large unless they’ve got money or are smart enough to make them on their own.”

Will laughed. “We’ve got both.”

“We?”

Will just smirked.

 More bullets were being shot outside and there was some being shot back.

“Are those…is that the snipers and guards we positioned?”

“Unfortunately.”

“And your people are shooting back?”

“Yes.”

“You must have a lot of people out there if they’re still holding their ground.”

“We do.”

“What gang is this?”

“Heroes of Olympus.”

Nico stiffened. “What?”

“You heard me.”

“ _Shit.”_

Will laughed.

“Shut up.”

“I’m good, thanks.” Then they were at the doors. “Hazel!” Will shouted out the door.

A girl, a little younger than Nico, with dark skin, stopped her shooting. She was positioned behind Hyperion’s car, which was the closest to them. Upon seeing them, she ran over to them, but still fired a few shots in the direction of what Nico guessed, were the Titans of Chaos’s own guards.

“I need you to cover Death Boy and I here,” Will said.

“Shut up!” Nico yelled.

The girl laughed and shook her head. “Already being annoying to the hostages, Will. I can’t say I’m surprised.”

“Oh, whatever. You love me.”

“Sure. Alright,” she leaned against the wall, then turned the corner to start shooting again. “Let’s go!”

They made their way to the vans just fine, surprisingly. Then Will got Nico inside and Hazel quickly handcuffed him onto the bench, lying down. Then she jumped out of the van and was shooting again.

“I need you to hold still,” Will told him. He was turned around so Nico couldn’t see what he was doing.

“Well, I can’t really go anywhere, can I?” He jingled his handcuffs.

“Yeah, well, don’t move.” Then Will turned around and injected something into Nico’s arm with a needle.

“What the hell was that?”

“An anesthetic.”

And Nico was certainly feeling it. His eyelids were made of lead, as was his whole body. He slowly felt himself drifting off, and as much as he tried to fight it, he knew he couldn’t.

“Sorry, Death Boy. See you in a second.”

“Don’t…don’t call me that.”

Then Nico’s world went black.

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God, I'm terrible at this.  
> Here's another chapter! I hope you guys like it. Also, I went back to the previous two chapters and changed some things, but nothing that would change the plot at all. It was mostly just grammar mistakes I made.  
> I hope you guys like this one! I wasn't planning on it at all, it just sort of happened, but I think it turned out all right. Tell me what you think because comments, kudos and anything else you can offer is appreciated.  
> Sorry to anyone (if there is anyone) who is keeping up with this for my typical late updates. My excuse: dying over the ending of season 2 of Black Butler (why?!) and No. 6. (I'm not done, but, wow, it's good).  
> Thank you for reading now! I hope you all have/had a wonderful day. If not, hopefully tomorrow will be better. Again, my apologies. Please, enjoy.

Nico was in copious amounts of pain. He hurt everywhere. His head was throbbing, his body was stiff, and his limbs ached. He tried opening his eyes, but the light made him flinch and close them tightly. Taking a few deep breathes, he tried again.  

When he opened his eyes, he began to panic. He had no idea where he was or how he got here, and there was no sign of any of his weapons. When Nico tried sitting up, he was weighed down by a blanket covering his body. His almost naked body. Great, really, this was fantastic. Lying shirtless in a random bed- it wouldn’t be the first time.

Something was off, though. Many things, actually. One, he wasn’t aching where he should have been if he had done it last night. Two, he was wearing pants, loose fitting ones, so not his. Three, he was covered in bandages. Four, the room he was in held nothing except the bed and machinery and- what the hell?

An infirmary. He was in an infirmary, judging by the I.V. in his arm, and heart monitor next to him. Why? What happened-?

Shit. Shit, shit, _shit._

The interrogation, the explosion and the Heroes of Olympus. He was currently a captive at a Heroes of Olympus base.

He was currently screwed, is what he was.

Nico had to get out of here- that was his current goal. He ripped the I.V. out of his arm, ignoring the sting, and sat up fully. There had to be something he could use for a weapon…

And of course someone had to walk. Two people, actually, both wearing guns at their hips. He recognized one of them as the man from before, the blond one-what was his name? Nico was bad at names and couldn’t remember. He was wearing the same thing from earlier, which meant it was the same day, thank God.

The other was a girl who had brown hair to her shoulders and a pink streak through it. Her long sleeves had been pushed up and Nico saw swirling tattoos poking out from them. Her smile was bright and almost out of place if it weren’t for the fact that the man next to her wore one that was practically glowing.

“And he’s awake!” the blonde said. He walked over and began looking at screens and writing things on the clipboard he held.  “You really think we left you here without any security? As soon as you ripped your I.V. out we were notified,” he said without looking up. “Lou Ellen, can you double check Nico’s vitals? And Nico sit there quietly and listen to what she says,” and with that he left the room.

Nico didn’t know what to say. He was currently running on adrenaline and instinct, not able to process anything. When Lou Ellen came over and began doing whatever tests she needed, he did what he was told and sat there quietly.

Finally, Lou Ellen said “All done! I’ll be right back, with Will. Don’t go anywhere. The doors locked, and we made sure there are no weapons in here. And security. I mean you could try, but… you’d fail.” Then left.

God, Nico hurt. This was hurting his head and his body ached more from sitting up. Despite these things he got up and tried the door anyway. Like the girl said- locked. Finding that he truly could do nothing he laid down on the bed and just tried to gather his thoughts.

He sat up when the door opened and Will and Lou Ellen walked in.

“Well, Death Boy, good and bad news,” Will said as he came and took a seat on the bed next to Nico. He handed Nico a gray shirt that he dutifully put on.

“Don’t call me that,” Nico groaned out. His throat hurt, dammit.

“Right, so good news,” Will completely ignored the brunet. “You won’t die, bad news you get to be interrogated now, so up and at ‘em.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” he said and glared at Lou Ellen who had a pair of handcuffs. She took a small step back and Will stood up.

“Sucks,” he said. Then he gestured to Lou Ellen who stepped forward as Will yanked Nico to his feet. Nico sighed in response.

Lou Ellen began locking the handcuffs around Nico’s wrist

“Kinky,” he deadpanned. She paused and looked up, as if wondering if it was in her best interest to laugh or not. Will, on the other hand, let out a laugh that made butterflies in Nico’s stomach.

 _What the fuck?_ No. No, Nico didn’t get butterflies. That didn’t happen. No.

He was lead out of the room and was met with people frantically running around in a big open space. On one side, the side with Nico on it, were doors leading off into rooms, probably for hostages. On the other were curtains separating beds, almost all of them full.

“Is this from the Titans of Chaos?” he asked Will.

“Yup,” Will said angrily.

 _And_ Nico felt guilty. He tried to push it down because Kronos had taught him quickly you never get anything if you feel guilty about what you did to get it. It was hard, though, when you were being lead down a whole line of people _literally_ laying in their death beds. Some were in the middle of having bullets taken out of them, getting stitches, others were being comforted because there was nothing else they could do.

Suddenly, at the end of the line there was a blonde girl who Nico felt he had seen…-the girl who had yelled at Will after the explosion. She was bloodied and Nico thought he saw more than one bullet wound in her.

Kneeling next to her was a boy with sea green eyes and dark hair. He was kissing her temple as he used one hand to run it through her hair, the other grasping her hand.

“Why, Annabeth? Why?” he practically sobbed.

The girl tried to smile. “You were going to die Seaweed Brain. I-I-“ She was cut off and started to gasp for air.

Will, who must have had his attention directed at the same scene as Nico, suddenly shoved Nico into the curtained off area with Annabeth and pointed a finger at him.

“You stay standing in that corner or I swear to every god that exist I will _permanently_ put you in one of these beds myself, and trust me, I know how.”

Nico didn’t have time to respond to Will (whose personality had changed so fast, Nico felt he got whiplash trying to follow) because said person was shouting orders.

“Lou Ellen, go get supplies, we’re doing the surgery now!” Will ripped off his flannel, leaving him in just a plain blue shirt.

 _God dammit!_ He was hot. Just Nico’s luck that his enemies had a doctor who was, honestly, just unnecessarily attractive. _It’s alright,_ he thought. _I’ve done business without getting involved with people, avoiding this fucking ray of sunshine will be easy._  

The, ah, doctor started to pull on some gloves as he looked at the machines Annabeth was hooked up to.

“But Will, I don’t know if anyone has administered her anesthesia yet,” Lou Ellen responded panicked.

“Why the fuck hasn’t- shit- okay, Lou, supplies! And tell Katie to get everyone else who’s trained in here _now_! Tell them direct orders from me because one of the fucking leaders-no _Seven_ is dying!” Lou Ellen nodded and sprinted down the large room.

“Percy-“ Will started.

“I’m not leaving her and don’t you _dare_ tell me to expect the worse because-“

“I’m not going to let her die, Percy. Not on my watch, but you need to at least back up. Please, let me do my job.”

Reluctantly Percy let go of Annabeth and stood of at the end of the bed.

“Annabeth,” Will said. “If you die, I’ll never forgive you, so hang in there.”

Lou Ellen ran in with a whole cart of supplies and stood next to Will. Two people followed her in, both pulling on gloves.

“Where’s everyone else?” he asked, taking things of the cart at a rapid pace.

“Either performing surgery or having surgery performed on them,” the girl responded.

“Motherfuck- Lou Ellen, you’re filling in as an assistant,” Will quickly said.

“Uh, Will, I’ve never, I can’t-“ she stuttered out.

“Lou,” Will said. “ _Annabeth Chase_ is dying.”

“Please, Lou Ellen,” Percy said.

“Okay,” she said. “Okay.” She looked down at Annabeth and Nico saw something curious in her eyes. In fact, Nico saw something curious in the whole situation.

At first, when Nico heard Will call Annabeth a leader, he realized why they were so urgent to save her. Common sense when you’re in a gang- you protect your leaders even if it costs you your own life. When he looked at the people around the bed, though, in their eyes he didn’t see soldiers saving their commander, he saw people saving their family.

It was the same gleam in their eyes as the one Bianca had when she had saved Nico’s life. Something he wouldn’t forget.

“Nico, give something to Annabeth to bite down on,” Will said, catching Nico off guard.

“What?” he said dumbly.

“Something to bite down on, di Angelo. She doesn’t have any form of anesthesia. Hurry.”

“Will,” the second surgeon, a man, said. “Are you really going to have the hostage-“

“He’s not going to do anything, David. Okay, everyone ready? We’re running out of time.” he said, as Nico found something to help Annabeth. Everyone nodded, and Will began to diagnose Annabeth, talking at rapid speeds.

“Alright, three bullet wounds. One under the shoulder in her left arm, another above that one that had possibly injured her collarbone, and finally one in her abdomen, which hopefully didn’t hit any major organs. I say at this rate, the major thing to worry about is exsanguination.

“That means blood loss, Lou Ellen. So I want you to cover David, who will remove the bullets in her arm and shoulder. As soon as he removes them, you need to keep her from losing as little blood as possible. Then, David I need both those wounds cleaned and stitched up. Meanwhile, Katie and I are going to make sure the bullet in her abdomen didn’t hit anything major, and by the looks of it, we’ll be okay.

“After that, we’ll remove it _carefully_ and stitch her back up. All of this has to happen in a matter of minutes because without the bullets to slow the blood loss, we’ll be losing her faster. Everyone got that? Good. David, go. Katie!”

Nico felt like he was watching a tornado in reverse. Everything and everyone was moving fast, but rather than tearing things apart, they were being put back together. As David was removing the bullets, Annabeth had begun to scream, but they were muffled as she bit down, hard. He was stitching her up, when Will had decided it was okay to remove the last one.

“Shit,” he muttered. Annabeth screamed.

“What?” Katie asked.

“The bullets a lot deeper and had hit more than I thought.” Annabeth screamed louder.

“What?!” Percy yelled.

“Percy, what’s Annabeth’s blood type? David how are the stitches coming?”

“Fine,” David said as Percy started cussing.

“Shit, uh, um, I don’t, uh-“

“Nico,” Will demanded, without looking up. “The clipboard hanging by the wall, what’s it say under blood type?”

Nico has worked under Kronos for five years, and he’s learned to do a lot in those five years. One of the things he’s learned is to think fast to find every way possible to take down your enemy and be ready to use any of these ways at any time.

So when Nico picked up the clipboard (with his still handcuffed hands) he remembered that 1) Annabeth was supposedly a leader of sorts and if a leader were to fall, everything else fell down pretty damn fast and 2) certain blood types could only have certain blood types transplanted. He didn’t know which ones specifically, but he could always lie and hope that whichever he chose wasn’t compatible with whatever Will chose.

He pondered all this in the time it took for him to grab the information, scan it, and find what he was looking for. He read, in sloppy handwriting, “ _O positive_ ” and as the words “A negative” were forming on his lips, he looked up and was met with piercing blue eyes.

Blue eyes looking straight at Nico, not flinching, unafraid. Blue eyes that were filled with a rare hope. Blue eyes that were saving lives Nico had helped ruin.

Nico closed his mouth swallowed, and opened it again. “O positive,” he said.

 _What the fuck was that, di Angelo?! What the actual hell?! Why?! You had a perfect opportunity and you 100% blew it, you idiot! Why they hell-no don’t think about it for too long!_ Nico silently chastised himself. _Damn head injuries._

 ~~Disappointingly, the blue eyes~~ _Will_ looked over to Lou Ellen. “Lou Ellen, I need you to run and grab bags of blood type ‘O’. You bring me anything else and she dies, you understand?”

Lou Ellen nodded, and dashed off. Will continued to work on the bullet in Annabeth’s side. Annabeth’s screams started to die down to whines. Then the machines hooked up to the leader began beeping.

“Will!” Percy screamed/sobbed.

“Will,” Katie said a bit more calmly. “We’re losing her.”

“We’re not losing her,” a determined Will replied.

“Will, her pulse-“

“We’re not losing her. Lou Ellen!” Will yelled.

The girl in question came flying into the room, multiple bags filled of red in her arms.

“I need those hooked up now, David. I’m pulling this bullet out.”

Nico had trouble following after that because in under a minute, Annabeth was completely stitched up, the bullets out of her, Will had adjusted things on the machines, had taken needles out of her arms, replaced them with new ones, and had administered various other medical procedures leaving Annabeth breathing, and the machines silent.

Will stood up and leaned his back against the wall. Removing his gloves, and wiping his forehead with the back of his hand, he looked over Annabeth, who had her eyes closed.

“She’s stable, but unconscious. Probably passed out due to the pain” Will told a worried Percy, who then immediately ran to the women’s side. Will gestured to everyone else in the room and, grabbing Nico’s arm, lead them out of the area, closing the curtain.

As soon as they were out, Katie turned to Will.

“Holy shit, Will,” Katie said.

 _You can say that again,_ Nico’s brain supplied for him. _What the hell? Maybe I should ask Will to check me out- to check my_ head _out and make sure I don’t have brain damage._

“She should be dead,” she told him in bewilderment.

“No,” Will said. “She should be alive. And she is, so great job everyone, especially being down at least two people. Lou Ellen, we should get going with Nico di Angelo.”

“ _Will_ ,” Katie said again.

“Katie, I have to get going-“

“Yeah right. You just don’t want to hear me tell you _once again_ that you’re some kind of mythical being with magic healing powers!” she pointed at him.

“ _Katie_ ,” Will groaned out. “David,” Will turned seeming to give up. “I want Annabeth to be monitored at all times, and if her heart rate so much as drops be a _single beat_ , I want to be notified.”

“Sure thing, Will.”

“Let’s go, Lou Ellen.”

“Wait, Will-!” Katie shouted after him.

Then Nico was being dragged down the hall by Will in his attempt to escape whatever Katie was trying to rant about. When the three of them, Will, Nico and Lou Ellen, were out the door, their paced slowed to walking.

Nico, like how he had been trained to do, looked at his surroundings. The walls were white concrete, the ceilings panels with in-ceiling lighting. The floors were grey polished and there were metal doors throughout the hallway and no windows. People were scattered about, some going into the doors some coming out, some holding papers, and all carrying weapons.

As they turned down a new hallway, Will laid a hand on the small of Nico’s back to guide him to the side as people walked next to them in the opposite direction.

Jumping, Nico said to Will “Don’t touch me.”

But Will was already pulling his hand away. “Oh, hush. I’m not assaulting you, I’m helping you. Learn the difference,” Will said with a smirk.

Nico rolled his eyes. “Don’t tell me what to do.”

Will only scoffed. And of course shot Nico a smile.

“Where am I going?” Nico changed the subject. Maybe he could get a little information from the two of them.

“Interrogation rooms,” Lou Ellen answered.

“Obviously. You already said that. I meant-“

“Hey,” Will said, guiding him down another hallway. “Don’t be rude.”

Nico let out an exasperated sigh. “Forget it,” he muttered.

Soon, though, he was lead through metal double doors, where there was a long hallway, similar to the previous one, but wider and next to each door there was a large window so you could see into the room. They brought him into the first room one on the right.

Upon entering he saw the windows were one way. The rooms were small, the lighting dimmer than the bright ones before, and they illuminated a metal table and chair where he was sat down.

“Whelp,” Will said as Lou Ellen removed the handcuffs. “Have fun.”

The two of them started to walk toward the door, but Will turned in the doorway. “Actually, judging by who’ll be doing the interrogation, good luck. Hopefully, I’ll see you later, Death Boy. It’s been fun,” he jokingly added, as an afterthought. Then that smooth motherfucker walked out, and Nico hear a lock click behind them.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, my computer broke. But now I have a laptop and a new chapter. Sorry, it's long and kind of got away from me and took for ever to get done. I hope you guys like it, though. Thank you all!

 

He was left sitting there for a long time, which Nico recognized as a tactic in this interrogation. He’d used it dozens of times when he questioned people himself.

That got him thinking about the Titans of Chaos, which lead him too where everyone else was. Did Thalia and the girl make it out alive? If so, they were probably doing just fine now, what with Thalia coming from this gang originally. As for Luke, he too was back in his old home, but it was unlikely his “welcome back” was as welcoming as the other two. And then there was Hyperion. Oh, it almost brought a smile to his face thinking about that man in the hands of their biggest rivals.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the door opening. He didn’t see who it was until they walked around and sat across from him.

Someone who looked like a girl sat across from him. She had on denim shorts, a large, orange shirt with a denim jacket thrown over the top. Her brown hair was full of braids and feathers, her skin flawless, and her eyes were definitely in the running for the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen. They were- well, he had no idea honestly. They were some sort of rainbow that sparkled with every color he could fathom.

Despite this, Nico read off the way she held herself she wasn’t going to rely on her looks. No, she liked using her beauty as a _tactic_ on people who would fall for it, not to take advantage of people. Other than that, she did things with the skills she’s learned. If anything, she was trying to downgrade her beauty, but honestly she couldn’t no matter what she did.

Which meant Nico had to be warry of her. He had to watch where he stepped, for one small slip could kill him.

“Nico di Angelo,” she said with a smile. “I’m Piper. I do investigations for the Heroes of Olympus. Let me guess, you don’t want to go through any of the small talk bullshit? I’m just going to get straight to the point, if you don’t mind. I’m sick of trying to schmooze information out of people today. So, what did the Titans of Chaos want with the Hunters of Artemis?”

Silence.

She sighed, annoyed. Her next smile seemed sympathetic or pitying.

“Nico, we just want to know so we can protect our friends. We’ve got a lot of people here. Children too. I don’t want to see them hurt.”

 _Shit_. “And you’ve got spies in my gang, don’t you?” Nico said to her. It was a bit too much of a coincidence she mentioned what Nico always fussed over in, what he thought, was a discrete way. Apparently not.

Piper smiled, a genuine one this time. “What do you expect from us?” Now, what did you intend to do with the information from the Hunters?”

Again, silence.

Nico didn’t want to let anything slip around her, so he thought it would be better if he just didn’t say anything for her to catch on to.

“Fine,” she said, then left.

 _Ugh._ He was left thinking again. This time he thought about the girl- Annabeth. He had caused that. Maybe not directly, but he helped.

_That’s the way the world worked. It’s okay._

_Is it?_

_Yes._

_She almost died._

_She shouldn’t have been in the crossfire._

And thus began the inner monologue where he talked down the guilt that bubbled to the surface. It continued for a bit until he thought he had a handle on it, then boredom took over.

Maybe he could think about a way to get out of here. No, he was stuck, whether he wanted to admit it or not. He’s been a hostage before, but this was the _Heroes of Olympus._ His “biggest rivals” and he got captured. Hopefully Kronos would bail him out soon. He usually did, and considering it was him, Luke and Hyperion, it should take no time at all.

In fact, it had to be almost the end of the day. Where was Kronos’s soldiers? They should have been-

He was interrupted when the door opened and Piper walked in. She sat down with a determined look.

“Ethan Nakamura,” was all she said.

Ethan Nakamura. He was a younger solider under Nico’s charge. He had grown up in the Titans of Chaos with his parents until they were killed during a job. It was about four years ago, five of them: Nico, Ethan, both his parents and another girl.

They were down at the docks, selling weapons to a big gang from Italy. It was supposed to be a quick job, but the Heroes of Olympus showed up. It was probably because the Italians had been planning to overthrow the last bit of organized government Italy had.

Anyways, there was shooting from all three sides. Ethan’s parents were among those who’re shot and killed. Now he harbored an outrageous amount of hate for the Heroes of Olympus, even for a nineteen year-old. Kronos liked Ethan’s passion, but hated his impulsiveness.

“Ethan Nakumura,” Piper repeated.

“What about him?” Nico asked. It was pointless to act like he didn’t know the kid.

“He’s here. We found him leading three others and sneaking around our second floor.”

“Hm.” Ethan wasn’t _that_ sloppy.

She asked “How do you think he was planning on getting you all out? I mean, he had to have had some plan. And only three people? We’re offended you think you could over power us with that small amount. Where’s everyone else?”

“How would I know?”

“Come on, you don’t have a typical arrangement or fallback plan?”

Nico stayed silent.

“Nico,” a bit more desperate. At this point he had no idea if it was an act or not. “I can’t let anyone else get hurt. All I need is a hint, that’s it. Please. What are they going to do?”

“I don’t know and if I did, why would I tell you?”

She sighed in response. Then she scrunched her eyebrows together and held her fingers to her ear.  (They must be wearing earpieces or something. They didn’t have any of those with the Titan’s of Chaos.) She looked up at Nico.

“Ethan told my partner, quote: ‘in my gang, we always take an eye for an eye’.” Piper began to look less composed as more time passed. “Di Angelo, what is he going to do?”

 _What? We don’t_ say _anything. An eye for an eye? And if we did, it wouldn’t be that._

“Nico, please were low on beds and understaffed in the infirmary. We can’t afford any more accidents.”

_What would he be talking about if that was the case…?_

“Don’t make me use physical force. I don’t want to do it, _ever,_ but if you don’t say anything I will.”

_What did they do to us that-?_

_Shit._

This was so like Ethan. He was childish and never took anything into serious consideration. He just acted and Kronos had probably left him to his own devices this time, which was a mistake.

Now, did Nico tell Piper and save people, but stay a hostage, or did he let Ethan make this mistake and get him out.

“Nico,” Piper said, pleading with her whole body. “I’m begging you. Please.”

Nico couldn’t let Ethan do what he was about to. If what Piper was saying was true… like that girl…Annabeth… God, that was a lot of pain in the eyes of those people. She wasn’t even dead yet, for gods’ sake.

 _They’re weak_ a side of Nico said. _Just like you’re being._

No, he couldn’t completely ignore everything Kronos taught him.

“Take me with you.”

“…what?” Piper asked.

“I said: take me with you. I think I know what Ethan is going to do, but you have to take me with you. I can help you, but you’ll need me there,” Nico lied.

 “Okay,” Piper said, hurriedly.

“They’ve got bombs. Ethan’s a distraction. His team wouldn’t need one for long. They would have waited until after they planted the rest of them before Ethan and who he was leading came in. did you check for weapons?”

Nico had been talking so fast, it took a minute for Piper to respond.

“Uh, yeah. Just a gun on each of them.”

“Check again. Better. Ethan _has_ to be hiding something else. Once he gets the signal- “

“Hold on,” Piper said. Standing up, she gestures for Nico to do the same. “Tell me on the way. We’re running out of time. If you’re telling the truth. Which you are.”

“Okay. And I am.”

“I know. Anyways, what are they doing?”

They walk out the door and Nico follows Piper down the hallway.

“Well, once Ethan gets whatever signal they have arranged, him and his team will open fire on anyone nearby. Then explosions will go off in the most critical parts of your base. The infirmary, weaponry, offices of leaders, anywhere they found. Finally, a small team will come to get hostages.”

“You guys must be more valuable to the Titans of Chaos than we thought. That’s a lot of work for three hostages.”

“Well, Kronos does play favorites, but this is Ethan. Kronos can’t oversee everything we do, so he just assigns jobs to other people most of the time. Handing this whole thing over to Ethan Nakumura wasn’t a smart move. All he cares about is revenge and pulling triggers. He’s been waiting to do both against you guys for five years. But you didn’t hear any of that from me.”

Piper lets out a short laugh. “My lips are sealed.”

They continue fast walking down a hallway, then down a flight of stairs. They stop outside a door and Piper peaks her head in.

“Jason,” she says, all business.

A tall, blonde man with a scar on his lip and glasses came out. The guy, Nico _has_ to say, is, ah, _fit…_ to say the least.

He glances at Nico. “What is- “ he starts, but Piper interrupts him.

She quickly explains why Nico is with her, then has Nico quickly explain Ethan’s plan.

“Shit,” he breathes out.

“Yeah,” Piper says.

“Do we have time to get the counselors together?”

“Maybe, if we hurry. And it’ll have to be in the infirmary because of Annabeth and Will.”

“Okay, let’s make it happen.”

Piper and Jason were immediately began talking into walkie talkies they had pinned to their sides and running back the way Nico had come earlier, dragging Nico behind them.

“I need someone to find him, and get him into Chase’s room! I don’t care if it’s the best damn invention the world’s ever seen!”

“Tell her they’ll get trained- there are hundreds of people in this building who can use a gun-! Why is Hazel teaching them how to use a sniper rifle?!”

“He’s not doing anything. Tell Percy he’s still needed today and to keep his fucking comm in- yes, you can tell him _I_ said that.”

This went on until they were at the top of the stairs, but when it stopped, they sprinted down the halls into the hospital. Nico, once again was pulled/shoved into Annabeth’s curtained off area. Nico counted seven other people in the “room”, including Jason and Piper.

“Where’s Leo and Hazel?” Piper asked.

“Here,” a girl said as she pulled the curtain aside and walked in with another boy.

That made nine people, besides Nico, squeezed into a small curtained off area. That was going to make the escape he was planning much harder. He could wait, though.

“Okay,” Piper began. She briefed them, too, on what was happening, but explained it herself, rather than having Nico do it.

“Do we know the exact positions of the bombs?” An Asian looking man asked.

“Technically, we aren’t even sure they exist,” Jason said.

“Wait,” Annabeth, still lying on the bed, interrupted. “We’re basing our information off a _guess_ given to us by- ahh-!” She stopped, squeezed her eyes shut and bit her lip. Hissing, she cradled her side. Percy and Will both made a move toward her, but she held her hand up.

“Fine. I’m fine. Like I was saying, this is all based off the information a hostage of the Titans of Chaos gave up willingly?”

“He’s telling the truth,” Piper said.

“How do we know?” Percy said.

They all looked at Nico, which made him incredibly uncomfortable.

“I, uh,” Genius. “We’ve used a tactic like this before, but it had made sense to use at the time. I, personally, wouldn’t use it now, but Ethan wouldn’t have thought about it. I think he’ll reuse the idea and- “

“We’re not questioning the idea itself. We want to know if _you_ are reliable,” a dark-haired girl said. She radiated power and a protective feel, but not for him, for the other people in the room. Her eyes said “I don’t want to deal with your shit and if I have to I _will_ kill you”.

Nico had to step up his game. For the first time in what felt like forever, he was intimidated. It was the “we”. While Nico was used to groups and gangs acting together, this “council”, as Jason had called it, was working like one well-oiled machine. They shared silent conversations in looks and spoke thoughts for everyone. They were all working in together to defend their gang against Nico’s. Each one of them looked ready to fight anything that dared threaten the other.

And Nico was alone.

Well, he’d just have to step up his game.

“I don’t expect you to trust me. Hell, I wouldn’t, but I’m the only one with any idea as to why Ethan and his troops are here. And I don’t see how my idea could cause any damage. What do you have to lose?”

“Oh, just our lives, but we almost-die every day.”

“Leo,” Piper said in a warning tone.

They all shared a look and then looked to Nico, somehow, in sync with each other.

“Okay,” Annabeth said, sitting up fully.

And just like that, they all went in to battle mode.

“Piper, status report on what _all_ the information the hostages have given,” Annabeth ordered.

“You already know what di Angelo and Nakumura have said. The other three have remained silent, Castellan has said nothing except that we’re the traitors, Hyperion told me he wanted to see me naked… until I broke his nose. Then he told me to go to hell.”

Everyone, even Nico, smirked or laughed. The dark haired girl offered her fist out for Piper, who returned the fist-bump.

“Perfect,” Annabeth continued. “Nico, where would the bombs be placed?”

He was surprised, but recovered quickly. “Hospitals, offices of any higher-ups we know about, or crowded places in the base,” he recited by memory. He wasn’t lying when he said they’ve done this before.

“We need to evacuate the building,” the dark haired girl said.

“I agree,” Jason said.

“That’ll take too long. We don’t know how long we have. If Ethan’s here, we’re down to an hour, probably less,” Piper said.

“We need to prioritize,” Annabeth nodded in agreement.

“Whatever plan saves the most people,” Percy added.

“Will, how many people are in the hospital right now?” the Asian looking boy asked.

“Oh, god, Frank, um,” Will thought. “Probably around 90. We’re still counting.”

“I have 20 more than that downstairs in training,” a girl said. (Hazel? That’s what she responded to walking in.)

“Reyna, are any of _them_ in their offices?” Annabeth asked. She spat the word “them” in a voice that sounded like a mock sort of respect.

“No. Most are out of the country or out getting drunk and laid,” the dark haired girl, Reyna, said.

“Okay, we don’t have to worry about that then.”

Nico’s curiosity was growing every second he was shoved up against these people (the curtained area was rather small and both the wall and Piper’s elbow were getting uncomfortable). The Titans of Chaos knew some about the Heroes of Olympus, but most of it was plans and missions of the gang. Their spies new very little about how they operated. All they heard was “orders from the top” or “higher ups”. 

Now, though, Nico was wondering who these people were. He’s heard “leaders”, “counselors” and they seem to have authority over the gang, but he didn’t know anything outside of that. He also wanted to know who the people Annabeth were asking about were.

“We’ll have to evacuate the entire south side of the building,” Leo said.

“How?” Percy asked. “The recruits, sure, but the hospital? The people in here won’t be able to get out on their own. And we have so much supplies up here, we’ll be left with nothing if we don’t take get it out with us.”

Hazel sighed. “What do we do then?”

“Get that shit away from my hospital,” Will said.

Everyone was silent for a few beats, thinking.

“Yeah,” Frank said. Everyone looked at him questioningly. “Yeah, that- that’s what we’ll do. We get a crew and have them search all throughout the hospital area for the explosives. Meanwhile, I’ll get people to help get anyone and anything else out of the building. That way, no damage is done to this section and everyone’s safe.”

“That’ll work,” Annabeth said. “Leo, Will, Percy, Jason, Piper and di Angelo are on getting rid of the explosives. Let’s _start_ with the hospital. If there’s time, move on to other parts of the building. That leaves Hazel, Frank and Reyna on getting everyone out. And someone put Ethan and the others in a more secluded room.”

“What’re you going to do?” Percy asked.

Leo smirked. “She’s gonna make sure none of us fuck up.”

 

* * *

 

 

Nico was voluntarily running down a hall this time. Without handcuffs, too.

And he didn’t even know why.

Well, he knew he was supposed to help his team figure out where the bombs were placed, but he didn’t know why he was helping. He hated these people. He should be sabotaging this mission, not assisting in it.

 _It’s for my own survival,_ he thought. _At the first opportunity, I’m out of here._

As they ran down the halls, the others we’re confirming things over their comms. Nico didn’t know what they were talking about, but didn’t really care. He was leaving.

He was lead into an office looking area, relatively big. Will dashed over to a file cabinet shoved in the corner, pulling out one of the files.

“Okay,” Jason said. He held his hand out to Will, who handed over the file. Jason opened it and laid a few of the papers out on a table. “These are blueprints and layouts of the entire hospital section of our base. Di Angelo, you somehow get any of these outside of this office, we have to send someone to make sure you never leave a cell. Leo?”

“Right, so, these blocks are windows on this one. On the other one, these are the windows. Here are doors and these are air vents. All the double lines…” Leo went on to explain all the sections of the map. Nico listened and, despite Jason's threat, memorized as much as he could.

Once Leo was done explaining all the aspects of the map, Nico was asked where the bombs would most likely be.

Nico sighed. Kronos would probably hire someone to beat him later.

“They probably came in on the roof. Snuck into the vents. We did it a couple times in Vancouver. They would go to the general hospital area, as close to the middle as they could guess. Now, they’re leaving out the way they came, getting ready to give Ethan- Nakumura- the signal.”

“We have guards on the roofs, though,” Piper said.

“When was the last you heard from them?” Nico fired back.

Jason's eyebrows furrowed. He picked up the walkie talkie on his belt. “Clarisse? I need you to check in on the security on top.”

“Sure thing,” a girl said.  There was a long pause. “Um, they’re not answering.”

“Shit,” Percy said.

Jason sighed and looked to Nico, defeated. “Okay. Frank?" He said into the earpiece, then explained the situation and suggested to order Clarisse to send people to the roof.

 “Idiot,” Nico murmured.

“What?” Will asked

Nico looked up to the doctor. “Ethan. He’s an idiot. He should have ordered the team to answer any calls and keep suspicions low. Answer like they were the guards, you know? That way you guys wouldn’t know we were on the roof.”

“Wow. I’m so glad you’re helping us,” Jason said sarcastically.

Realizing why that could have been bad to say, Nico shrugged and looked down at the maps. He glanced back up at the faces around him, also looking at the papers on the table. Will was smirking, though.

“Anyways, I would search from here to here,” Nico pointed to air vents over the hospital.

“Okay, let’s go,” Piper said. “We’re wasting time.”

And Nico was running down halls again, following Will to where Nico pointed on the map. There were tons of people running around, frantic. Some carrying supplies, others papers, and, on occasion, another person. Him and the group he was with ran around them. Except for Piper, Leo and Percy. They were competing to see who could jump over the most obstacles. Nico would have yelled at them for it, but 1) this wasn’t his team to be leading and 2) he was going to be ditching them all soon.

(And if he was being honest, they were having way too much fun. Nico was having to hold back from smiling at the insults Piper and Percy threw or every time Leo fell. It was strange, but he kind of enjoyed it. No one was interesting or childish in the Titans of Chaos.)

Which got him thinking. He can’t let anyone from his gang see him. If they did, word would somehow get around and next thing he knew, Nico would be carried into Kronos’s office to be shot between the eyes.

So, as long as no one saw him, he was good as gold.

“Okay,” Will yelled behind him. “Add up your scores!”

They slowed to a walking speed right before a corner.

“I win!” Percy yelled.

“No, I win ‘cause I didn’t fall and you did,” Piper said. “Three times.”

“Fine. Piper wins, I’m second, Leo, as usual is the loser.”

“Whatever. I win in the looks department.”

All of them, even Nico, laughed.

“No,” Jason said, clapping Leo on the shoulder. “No you don’t”

“Um, you don’t count. Obviously you’re going to choose Piper because you’re together!”

“I say we have Will decide,” Percy said. “It’s only fair.”

“I’ve told you once and I will tell you again, I’m not going to help you decide which of the eight of you is the hottest.”

“You’re the only one of the group who can give us a legitimate answer,” Piper explains.

“That is so, incredibly _not_ true,” Will says.

They all collectively cringed, a few holding a hand to their ear. Except for Nico. They must all be wearing the earpieces, but that doesn’t explain why they also have the walkie talkies.

“Okay. Sorry, Annabeth,” Percy said.

“Well,” Jason said, looking worried. “Which vents were they?”

“Oh,” Will started walking. “The ones right around this corner. From here to the end.”

They turn down the hallway, and hanging from the ceiling is the opened panel of one of the vents. And three people running towards it.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Percy said.

“Nico?” one of the three said.

“Shit,” Nico said.

“Guys? We have them,” Jason said, most likely into the earpiece.

Nico watched as one of the people from the Titans of Chaos raised their gun. The girl didn’t aim for him, but was getting ready to fire at someone.

Nico wasn’t thinking. He wasn’t. That’s why he can’t explain why he grabbed Will’s gun and fired at his own gang. But he did. And it took as long as it took the bullet to lodge in the girl’s arm for Nico to realize that he had never been more screwed in his whole life.

He fired at his own gang to defend their enemies.

Piper, Percy, Jason and Leo had pulled out their own weapons and were telling the others to stand down. Nico just stood there, still holding the gun.

“Let’s go. You can panic later. After I’m done,” Will said.

Nico was about to protest and say he wasn’t panicking, but he was. He was very much panicking.

He grumbled out “You don’t look like you’re panicking” instead.

“It’s on the inside,” Will said. “Really, though, we have a mission to finish.”

That was somehow the perfect thing to say to Nico. (Damn the attractive doctor. Damn him to hell.) He needed a distraction, something to do, an order because he was suddenly out of them and he didn’t know this is what it felt like. He needed a new “we”. Nico doubted he would find one here, but this was a temporary he could go with. This would probably be the last time he would get one.

Deep breath. He was Nico fucking di Angelo. This was nothing. Fuck.

With Will, he walked down the hallway to meet the others.

They were interrogating the three people from the Titans of Chaos about the explosives and their position. Piper was almost there, he could tell. The girl she was asking kept looking at Piper then having to glace away.

Piper must have caught on and adjusted herself to stand just a little closer to her. Jason and Percy were explaining to the girl Nico shot how her wound looked serious and probably needed help immediately. She didn’t, but she was in a lot of pain. They should have used that instead. Leo was just grilling the last guy. No tactics. Just asking questions about the explosives.

“Got it!” Piper announced, backing away from the flustered girl.

Jason then instructed everyone into new jobs. Percy, Piper and him were going to bring in the others to cells, while Nico, Will and Leo would get rid of the explosives in the hospital level. Luckily there wasn’t a lot (Nico thought it was because that was just how much Ethan could take without Kronos noticing).

They took off to the first bomb, Leo the whole time telling Nico they better have a real challenge for him this time, whatever that meant. Finally, they got to where they were supposed to be. The group Ethan sent in there had put bombs in separate rooms. Their first stop was in an emergency room. Will walked in first, under his request so he could talk to the patient in the room. There were some muffled words, then Will came out and got Leo and Nico. 

Nico walked into the room and just about lost his shit. “Those fucking bastards! Man, I can’t wait to see them in hell. Of course they-!”

“Nico,” Will warned. He then gestured to the bed, where a young boy, about 8, was laying with a mask over his face. “Guys, this is Casper.” The boy lifted his hand in a wave. “He was put in critical condition after a run in with a group of thugs on excursion for our trainees. I asked him and he said that a, ah, _nurse_ came in and sad she was placing equipment in here. Behind the heart monitor. Leo?”

“Of course,” way too cheerily. “Alright let’s see…” he walked over to where Will had directed, Nico following.  Will went over to a chart near and started talking to Casper about how better he was looking.

“Oh, come on!” Leo exclaimed.

“What? What’s wrong?”

“Huh? Oh, nothing.  I- uh- don’t get mad or take this the wrong way, but I…I was kind of hoping this would be a challenge.”

“I still don’t get it,” Nico said as Will scoffed.

“I could deactivate this in my sleep. It would do a lot of damage if it went off, like, a lot a _ton_ of damage-.”

“Leo,” Will chastised.

“Sorry. It’s really dangerous, but I can get rid of it like…that.” He said after he had fiddled with the bomb in his hand. “Di Angelo. Dude. Tell your groupies to step their game.”

“They aren’t my- “

“Actually,” Leo interrupted Nico. “Hey, Annabeth? Yeah! I told you I, am the _boss_. Anyways, send some of my newbies to the other locations. They could use the experience and it won’t be too difficult... okay, not in the hospital. Perfect! Thanks!”

After that, it was a blur. Leo deactivating bombs in seconds flat, sprinting through hallways. Nico having to tell them that some of the locations had to be decoys, especially the last one. The girl had tried to cover her mistake. He listened to them respond to orders he couldn’t hear. Will leading them to rooms and being incredible with the patients. Nico thinks he might have treated a person or two in the hallways, and it hadn’t slowed them down at all. He was kind of impressive. In a totally business, acquaintance, respectful, nothing-including-hormones, inspirational, casual way. Yeah.

It had taken about 15 minutes for all the explosives in the hospital level to be taken care of. When Will announced they were done, he felt weirdly happy. It was mostly the happy part that was weird. He wasn’t used to feeling happy over saving lives. Relieved, accomplished, sure. Not happy, though.

He was, for some reason, and even got a high-five form Leo and a ~~gorgeous~~ smile from Will.

They were heading down a flight of stairs, back to Annabeth’s room, when his happiness was cut short by a loud blast and rattle of the building.   

 

 


End file.
